Insider says “nothing is going through” Strait of Hormuz, despite US insisting it is open

London – The Central Command of the American military repeats on Tuesday evening what has been done by the Trump administration several times in the past two weeks, insisting that “despite the Iranian aggression, the Strait of Hormuz is still open for the passage of commercial ships.”

CENTCOM acknowledged in the same statement that Iran has attacked commercial shipping more than 30 times since the start of the war, saying it “endangered hundreds of innocent sailors and undermined freedom of navigation.”

President Trump, who has announced that the strait is open several times recently, threatened on Wednesday that destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant for every new attack targeting a ship in a critical waterway.

Although the US president and the military continue to urge ships to use the southern route in the middle of the sea, in defiance of Iran's threats, few hijackers seem willing to take the risk.

The Joint Maritime Information Center in Bahrain, a military partnership that includes the US, said traffic in the Strait of Hormuz dropped for three weeks on Tuesday amid ongoing Iranian attacks. CBS News tracked just three commercial vessels — two cargo ships and the Chinese-owned tanker Hsin Ocean — passing through the port on Tuesday.

Between July 13 and 19, only two ships passed through this route using the US-backed southern route that hugs the coast of Oman. Both passages were blacked out, meaning the ships had turned off their AIS broadcast systems, according to Lloyd's List analysis.

Last week, Dimitris Maniatis, the CEO of the Greek maritime risk management company, Marisks, said the ship's crew was reluctant to take the trip following the collapse of the US-Iran withdrawal agreement that lasted less than three weeks.

“There is nothing that interferes with the movement of any ship that is willing to pass through the port, and there are ships that trade in the area and are not affected by everything that is happening, however, if we are talking about large merchant ships that go to sea, owned and operated worldwide, nothing is happening,” Maniatis told CBS News on Wednesday.

US support for ships that choose to risk Iranian attacks by taking the Oman route is limited to air support as they try to travel as part of a convoy, Maniatis said, “and this is not enough, because we see that, despite the best efforts and intentions of the US Navy, the ships continue to be hit while crossing the southern channel.”

“There is no guarantee that he will pass safely,” he said.

Greek shipping giant Dynacom was one of the last international operators willing to send workers to the pirates, but two of its ships ran aground off the coast of Oman earlier this week, forcing both crews to evacuate.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that South Korea's Sinokor Group had offered the sailors six months of extra pay to return to the ship.

The Iranian threat, on the other hand, is spreading.

Iran's Houthi rebels in Yemen said this week they would prevent Saudi Arabia from using its Red Sea ports to get energy products to Asian markets. That route depends on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait as the southern gateway to the Red Sea.

Like the Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb is a narrow choke point for shipping that could leave it vulnerable to attack, and the Houthis have a history – including in the past few years – of using their proximity to shipping lanes to threaten global trade. Before the war, about 30 percent of the world's oil would cross these two lines every year.

At least five commercial ships were seen turning around on Tuesday as they approached Bab el-Mandeb after the Houthis announced their intention to blockade Saudi Arabia.

Asked on Tuesday about the Houthi threat, Mr. Trump said there is no blockade in the Red Sea, adding, “If something like that happens, we care about that.”

But Maniatis said the US, so far, has not been able to take care of it in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Owners and operators – and workers, in particular – don't feel the security they need to keep their ships going, and now we're seeing the same thing in Bab el-Mandeb, which is very bad,” Maniatis told CBS News.

“There are too many people who have been completely destroyed,” he said, referring to ship workers in the region. “We see a lot of crew members who have worked for a long time, but also younger crew members, where their minds are completely destroyed. They don't want to be on ships anymore.”

At least 17 merchant seamen have been killed in 61 separate attacks in the Strait of Hormuz since the US and Israel launched their joint war with Iran at the end of February, according to the UN's International Maritime Organization.